Arundhati Bhattacharya on why you shouldn’t become indispensable at work

SBI's first female chairperson discusses demonitization, women at the workplace, and the value of empathy

It was way back in the 1970s in Bengal, and Arundhati Bhattacharya was on her way to start her pre-medical training after getting through the entrance exam. But the Naxalite movement in the state meant irregular classes, so a five-year degree would have taken eight years to complete, which made the whole thing infeasible, as her dad was due to retire. Then her school principal, the legendary Father John Moore, who set up St Xavier’s School, Hazaribagh and St Xavier’s School, Bokaro Steel City, suggested that she study English Literature and look at journalism as a career option. While studying Literature at Jadavpur University, some friends were sitting for the banking exam and she joined in. (“It was more like a bet; we just wanted to see if we could crack it.”) She did. “And that’s how I became a banker.”

Four decades later, she’s due to retire from the post of chairman of the State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest bank. In the four years at the helm, Bhattacharya, who was ranked 25th in the Forbes list of the world’s most powerful woman in 2016, steered the bank’s implementation of last year’s massive demonetisation drive, scaled up digitisation in the bank’s operations, improved capital efficiency and over- seen the merger of five of its associate banks.

When we meet her in her 18th-floor of office in the SBI headquarters in Mumbai, we discover in her an astute banker who’s listening to the numbers as well as the needs of the people she works with. She loves to travel (but not for work), reads five books at a time (and hopes to write one someday), and rues how much she spends on saris. She transitioned from the world of Dostoevsky to digits and decimal points but brings to the table much-needed empathy and the value of being nice while getting the job done. Excerpts from an interview:

You were the first woman to have been appointed chairman of the SBI in the 200-year history of the bank. Did that play on your mind?It’s not a conscious thought but very often people around you will tell you it’s a big deal. And frankly, you don’t know whether it is a hindrance or an enable…or neither.

As far as my own experience is concerned, I’ve found this organisation to be a meritocracy. I also believe in lending a helping hand whenever someone has a difficulty, and it has nothing to do with gender.

During your tenure as chair-man, you have introduced measures such as a two-year sabbatical leave policy for the bank’s women employees, alongside free vaccinations against cervical cancer. The most powerful women in the world are espousing the welfare of women at the workplace…It’s something that we’ve really been committed to. Women form 50 per cent of society, so they should form 50 per cent of the workforce in any organisation. We find that once women come on board, many of them fall off; at the entry level I might be getting 30 per cent women, but at the top level it becomes 4 per cent. So there’s a loss, a lot of leakage, along the way. You need to plug those leakages. We found that women were not being given operational assignments because they were finding it difficult to go and live in remote areas, especially rural areas, the tier-5 and tier-6 centres, because nobody would rent out a place to single women. So we created chummeries, where we hire the flat where four to six women can stay together and from where they can travel to the rural branches that may be located 15, 20 or 30km away. This enables me to put them out onto operational assignments, which if they didn’t take up would impact their career going forward. It grooms them for higher management, it makes them look after each other.

And cervical cancer is so preventable. We’ve provided vaccinations not only for our women employees but also their daughters, because they should be protected, too. These are small things but they make a difference.

What was your first reaction to the announcement of last year’s demonetisation and how would you now view the move and the SBI’s response to it?My first reaction was, let’s go out and organise it. The announcement happened on the evening of November 8, and we had to open counters on the morning of 10th. Thirty-six hours is a very small window. Not just that, demonetisation last happened in 1978, so there was no standard operating procedure. We also had to convey to our people that they had to behave in the best possible manner with customers, com- fort them, tell them their money is safe. The communication exercise was a massive one.

When I look back I sometimes wonder how we did it. Of course, it helped that there was a groundswell of support from people at large.

When you took over in 2013, you had listed investor relations, improving productivity, capital efficiency and overall liquidity management as your priorities. How would you view the progress made in each of these?We’ve made huge productivity gains. The cost-to-income ratio has been brought down, several cost-control measures have been introduced, and the market share in advances has improved. When it comes to investor relations, if you remember, as soon as I came in I did a QIP (qualified institutional placement). It was a bit of a struggle as there was a lot of volatility around the globe—the Indian currency got linked with the Fragile Five, one of the South American nations did a devaluation as well, etc. We finally managed to close it at 8,000 crore. Compared to that, when we went for a QIP this time, I could do a 15,000-crore QIP at market rates without discount. So we’ve come a long distance. People do believe this is a bank that is going to stay, that’s going to get better, bigger and stronger. And we’ve shown that through the digital initiatives we’ve undertaken.

Today, there is a lot of emphasis on us being a learning organisation. For instance, we now have five marks in our annual reports that are only given if you have completed the self-learning courses that are recommended for you at the start of the year. We have also created a position of chief ethics officer. At one point, only 37 per cent of our roles were measurable. Today, it’s 93 per cent. We’ve done a lot of work to make this bank more future-ready and responsive to the needs of the market.

What would you say about the proverbial work-life balance?I always believe in teamwork. And teamwork doesn’t only mean the office; it also means home. You need to have teams everywhere, because you can’t do everything on your own. And to get those teams, you must be kind to people. Secondly, you must prioritise. There are times when you’ll have to prioritise family, and there are times when you must prioritise work. Thirdly, don’t make yourself indispensable. A lot of us have insecurity issues, because of which we want to be indispensable. Even in office, I have known women, some of the best achievers, who keep everything close to the chest. When they’re away you don’t know who to call. You need to create a team that will seamlessly step into the gap. You don’t have to feel insecure. You’ll still be required. Your place is your own. It doesn’t matter if your secrets are known, it doesn’t matter if you give the keys to somebody.